The biggest news of the day (and thankfully, the only bit of the day's bad news that won't directly hurt us): Amazon will be offering same day delivery for purchases made in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Seattle.

Geeks of Doom regurgitates a PR piece proclaiming, "Legendary Pictures has obtained the rights to turn Gravel into a feature-length film adaptation of the popular comic series from Warren Ellis and Avatar Press." Never heard of the "popular" Gravel? Me either, and I'm in and out of comic book shops multiple times every week.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The impetus was innocent: I wanted a Where The Wild Things Are glove. You know, like those giant, green Hulk hands that they sold in toy stores a few years ago, the ones that the lead singer of the Flaming Lips used to wear during concerts while pouring copious amounts of fake blood over his head. Yeah, one of those. Unfortunately, no one was making them. I mean, if you wanted a $600 set of Max pajamas, you could pull out and a credit card and let the wild rumpus start. But if you wanted to terrorize your tots with an over-sized ogre hand, you were poop outta luck."Then make your own!" the little Jiminy Cricket voice inside my head said.While this voice has been the cause of much grief and considerable court costs over the years, I figured, what the hell. After all, I've always been a sucker for peer pressure, and I'm especially susceptible when it comes from my imaginary friends.So with some scissors, packing tape, and a couple of small cardboard boxes, I made the glove shown below. While I was aiming for a monster hand like the main character, Carol's, fate (and an alarming lack of talent) intervened, providing me with a four fingered, feathered-looking fin that more closely resembled the Douglas character's dairy-colored digits. Still, it had come together so quickly and with so little fuss that I decided to make a second one for my other hand. That, too, was a piece of the proverbial cake. Admiring the handiwork adorning my hands, I thought, this must be how Jesus felt when he built his cross made wine outta water.

In all honesty, this should've been enough for me. I'm not a particularly crafty fella, preferring lifting weights and having sex with Hollywood starlets to the world of construction paper and glue sticks. Yet for some strange reason, it wasn't. The more I looked at my monstrous mitts, the more I felt...incomplete.That's when the Jiminy Cricket voice inside my head spoke up again. "What better way to waste a workday than by making even more cardboard costume pieces?"How right you are, Jiminy!Fast-forward several large boxes and two and a half cash register shifts, and I had the pullover chest piece, shoulder wing flaps, and sweat lodge/Halloween mask pictured below.

Staring into the backroom bathroom's spittle speckled mirror, dressed from head to potbelly in my cumbersome cardboard couture, a familiar voice spoke to me once more."I sure hope you're happy with your construction paper and your glue sticks, cuz as soon as the photos of you wearing that thing hit the internet, you're never getting laid again!"Ah, how right you are, Jiminy.

Well, that's my story, my Where The Wild Things Are costume, and my pride, all laid out before you like a self-serving sacrificial offering. Handle with care.

Now that we've shat upon your livelihood, let's move on to your faith. A Catholic professor walks into a bar and says, "The first verse of the Bible was a mistake." And that's it. There's no joke. Dude really thinks that Genesis 1:1 was f**ked in translation.

Cue righteous indignation in three...two..."In a case with potentially major implications for scholars and publishers, a Stanford University professor who often serves as an expert witness against tobacco companies is fighting an effort by lawyers for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to obtain the manuscript of his unpublished and unfinished book on that industry."To read the rest, click here.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Try tiling this eye-catching Where The Wild Things Are drawing by Justin Ridge. (For a peek at what this will look like, click here.) Then, as a way of saying thank-you for this unlicensed appropriation of Ridge's unlicensed illustration, stop by Justin's blog to see what else he's been doodling.

Monday, October 12, 2009

This is twelve minute chat with Sonny Gerasimowicz, the artist who visually translated the drawings in the WTWTA book into the monster suits you see in WTWTA the movie. In this behind-the-scenes PR clip, Gerasimowicz talks about growing up an art fiend, whoring himself out to Hollywood, working with Maurice Sendak, and what it’s like to be a Wild Thing.(Spoiler alert: In the WTWTA film, the Wild Things are actually people in suits and NOT monsters. Bummer, huh? Anyway, Gerasimowicz was the man in the Alexander suit.)

Sarah Palin's editor has written an anti-Palin gag book. While the book sounds (mildly) funny, it does raise an ethical question: How long are whores supposed to wait before speaking out against their Johns?

More Palin book news! According to EW, the Wassila wildcat's upcoming memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, is just one of waaay too many recent releases to use the flag-waving subtitle. Thanks, 9/11 -- first you gave us jingoistic ribbon magnets, and now this!